Sunday, February 07, 2010

What a con!

So called 'Developed' countries could well note a report in PNG's The National. The PNG Environment and Conservation Secretary, Dr Wari Iamoan says PNG will reduce it's carbon emissions by 60% in 10 years and by 100% in 40 years. The methodology to achieve this reduction must surely be revolutionary. Exactly who is in charge of measuring PNG's carbon emissions and how this would be done was not detailed however.

Elsewhere, it was reported that 'Carbon Cowboys' have now created a scam and tricked German Carbon Creditors into releasing their confidential data base details and diverted some of the millions on offer into false bank accounts.

The process of buying carbon credits appears to some to be a simple equation. Electricity producers can continue to produce electricity from coal but buy carbon credits from those selling them to 'offset' the carbon dioxide so produced and being releasing into the atmosphere. Exactly how this will reduce the overall carbon emissions is unclear and the cost of 'buying' carbon credits will just be passed onto the consumer as a simple, new impost.

Those 'selling' carbon credits don't seem to have any guaranteed methodology of ensuring that the 'credits' they are selling can either be verified or audited. Those nations who still have rainforests were very quick to reject any external auditing of their forest resources proposed at Copenhagen.

So can someone explain how carbon credits and emmissions trading schemes will effectively guarantee any reduction in carbon dioxide emissions or future greenhouse pollution? The whole process seems to be a sham of the greatest proportions. With electronic bank transfers and offshore bank accounts, those operating these carbon credit schemes seem to have an open door to manipulate the consumers and those with forests and play both sides off against each other while making millions in the process. What a con! ________________________________________________________

PNG ready to submit carbon targets to UNSource:By PATRICK TALUPAPUA New Guinea has formalised its emission reduction targets (ERT) to comply with the Copenhagen Accord in reducing carbon emissions by 60% come 2020 and 100% by 2050. Environment and Conservation Secretary, Dr Wari Iamo, said PNG was ready to submit its ERT to the UN together with its emission mitigation action plans.Dr Iamo told The National yesterday by phone that PNG was focusing on the reduced emission on deforestation and degradation (REDD) initiative. "To facilitate the REDD initiative, the Annex One nations (industrialised nations) have already committed K3 billion - K5 billion to the coalition of rainforest nations, including PNG."These funds are going to be used to create awareness, establishment of institutional capacities financing and technology transfer, pilot projects, laws and policy framework for REDD initiative and other necessary works," Dr Iamo said. Meanwhile, the EU last month formalised its support for the Copenhagen Accord on climate change and presented its commitments for ERT to the UN.In a statement released from the EU country office in Port Moresby on Monday, a joint letter signed by the Spanish presidency of the council and the European commission has formally notified the EU's willingness to be associated with the Accord and submitted information on EU's established greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for 2020. Commission president José Manuel Barroso said: "The EU is determined to move ahead rapidly with implementing the Copenhagen Accord to make progress towards the agreement that we need to hold global warming below 2°C. "The accord provides a basis on which to build the future agreement and I therefore urge all countries to associate themselves with it and notify ambitious emission targets or actions for inclusion as we are doing." The accord was the main outcome of the UN climate change conference held in Copenhagen from Dec 7 - 19.The accord was negotiated by 28 developed and developing countries and the EC which account for 80% of the GHG emission.

That's exactly what hackers went after last week when they obtained unauthorized access to online accounts where companies maintain their carbon credits, according to the German newspaper Der Spiegel.

The hackers launched a targeted phishing attack against employees of numerous companies in Europe, New Zealand and Japan, which appeared to come from the German Emissions Trading Authority. The workers were told that their companies needed to re-register their accounts with the Authority, where carbon credits and transactions are recorded.

When workers entered their credentials into a bogus web page linked in the e-mail, the hackers were able to hi-jack the credentials to access the companies' Trading Authority accounts and transfer their carbon credits to two other accounts controlled by the hackers.

Under environmental cap-and-trade laws, there's a limit to the greenhouse gases companies can emit. Companies that exceed this limit can purchase so-called carbon credits from entities that produce fewer greenhouse emissions than the limit provides them.

The scheme has produced a robust market for the trade of credits. More than 8 million tons of CO2 emissions worth $130 billion were traded in Europe last year.

According to the BBC, it's estimated the hackers stole 250,000 carbon credit permits from six companies worth more than $4 million. At least seven out of 2,000 German firms that were targeted in the phishing scam fell for it. One of these unidentified firms reportedly lost $2.1 million in credits in the fraud.

The credits were resold for an undisclosed sum. The buyers, who likely believed the transactions were legitimate, haven't been named.

The German Emissions Trading Authority has suspended access to its databases for a week while an investigation is underway.

The fraud is the latest example of hacks aimed at gaming environment controls. A year ago, hackers penetrated the Brazilian government's quota data for Brazilian rain forest products - allowing the illegal poaching of more than 1.7 million cubic feet of timber.

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